Kentucky: Ted Musgrave race report

Musgrave, No. 9 Team ASE Toyota Finish 3rd at Kentucky Speedway
Sparta, KY (July 15, 2007) Ted Musgrave returned to the seat of the No. 9 Team
ASE Toyota with a vengeance this weekend, racing to his best finish of
the season in the Built Ford...

Musgrave, No. 9 Team ASE Toyota Finish 3rd at Kentucky Speedway

Sparta, KY (July 15, 2007) Ted Musgrave returned to the seat of the No. 9 Team
ASE Toyota with a vengeance this weekend, racing to his best finish of
the season in the Built Ford Tough 225 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race
at Kentucky Speedway. Musgrave ran in the top five for much of the
evening in the 150-lap race, and had moved into the second spot during
the final green flag run but in a replay of the last race at Memphis, the
No. 9 truck was chased down by Travis Kvapil late in the going and
Musgrave settled for third.

Mike Skinner dominated the race on his way to
his fourth win of the year. As Skinner pulled away over the final 50 laps
of the race, the best race on the track was the battle for second.
Musgrave would close in on Kvapil, relentlessly stalking the former NCTS
Champion over the final 20 laps. Musgrave, a former series Champion in
his own right, would close to within one truck length, but was not able
to get in a position to make a pass for the position.

"Once Travis
got in front of me I couldn't quite get back up to him,"
Musgrave said. "We came from tenth and raced our way back up there,
but burned the tires off of it a little bit. The truck's definitely
getting better. After Milwaukee, we had a heart to heart talk with the
guys on the team and we redesigned it back to where I liked it years ago.
We used it for the first time at Memphis last week and they had the truck
to beat, and we've been fast all weekend long here in Kentucky.
It's just a matter of time until those guys are chasing us to the
checkered flag.

Musgrave, who joked with Kvapil after the race about
giving him a shot in the tail after the controversial finish two weeks
ago in Memphis, said sitting that race out was enough to light his
competitive fires for the rest of the season. "I sat on the couch
with my wife Debi and we looked at each other and said 'this is
weird'," Musgrave said. "It was tough to sit there and
watch it and not be there. I don't think either of us liked it very
much. We came back and ran strong right off the trailer, and we'll
be strong like this the rest of the season. Our goal is to come out and
be competitive every week and get back in the top five in points at the
end of the season."

With his fifth top-five finish of the season,
Musgrave jumped two positions in the unofficial NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series standings to eighth.